The Importance of Braille

A recent article in the New York Times discussed the importance of braille literacy. After reading this article we have found critical points and useful information regarding the importance of braille.

The following is a summary of the New York Times article, using their ideas, research, and references.

Less than 10% of the 1.3 million legally blind people read braille. In today's age of technology it makes sense that people are shying away from learning braille. Braille books are large and expensive and there are many alternative technologies to read and communicate besides the written word.

Studies are showing that blind people that never learned braille have a more difficult time writing and communicating their thoughts. One particular study found that students that read braille wrote better stories, while those that just used a keyboard and played back their writing typically wrote very disorganized and disjointed stories.

Writing stories may not seem like a critical part of life, but most often blind people get jobs doing intellectual work rather than jobs involving manual labor. Being able to properly communicate through your writing is important in an intellectual work place. It is believed that this is why people that have learned braille as a child are twice as likely to be employed as those that had not.

The visual cortex takes up over 20% of the human brain and was typically thought to only be accessible by sighted people. Recent brain imaging studies have shown that reading braille actually stimulates the visual cortex in a blind person. It has also been found that if the visual cortex does not have images to process, it can reorganize for new functions, such as memory.

As you can see, although there are tools to read a book or a letter out loud, it is still advantageous to know braille. Braille helps blind people understand the fundamentals of language and convey them in their written communications. It also helps to stimulate the brain.

To see the original NY Times article or to see their references, please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/magazine/03Braille-t.html

The Season for Giving

For the past few years ViewPlus has adopted a family for the holidays. This year we have gone through the Vina Moses Organization (http://www.vinamoses.org/). Founded in 1917, it is a local non-profit organization that strives to provide families in need with food, clothing, and other necessities. They collect donations as well as put on specific events such as a back to school fundraiser and adopt a family for the holidays.

This year we have adopted a family consisting of a single mother and her 2 children. We are working to raise money to provide this family with the gifts they have listed on their wish list, and any extra money raised will go towards providing the family with a food basket. We have found that adopting a family is a great way to help out those in need and it is more personal than donating money.

Last year we rose a little over $400 towards our family. This year we have raised about $350 so far. With the harsh economy and increased need for food and gifts this holiday season, we have found this year a crucial year to be involved.

If you are interested in adopting a family or donating money for the holidays most counties have organizations that collect money or food for families in need.

ATIA Chicago 2009

The last week in October several of our employees flew to Chicago for ATIA's assistive technology conference.

When: October 29-31

Where: Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center, Schaumburg (Chicago), IL

The Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) is a non-profit organization that’s mission is "to serve as the collective voice of the assistive technology industry so that the best products and services are delivered to people with disabilities." For this reason, their shows have exhibitors demonstrating all sorts of assistive technologies, not just those dealing with blindness.

Overall the show was a great success. In our booth we had an Elite and Emprint embosser on display, as well as one of our desktop units. We also had drawings to give away a Tiger stuffed animal and an AGC as a part of our social media promotions.

At the show we had a chance to meet with several of our distributors and speak with many teachers and school districts interested in our products. There was also an opportunity for us to give a presentation about bringing IVEO and Daisy Books together and to demonstrate a potential new pen input device that would allow for IVEO to be easily portable. Daisy Books are unique digital audio books that allow the user to easily navigate pages. Combining IVEO with this technology would allow for tactile graphics to be added to Daisy Books, creating a more interactive experience.

This was ATIA's first year ever doing a show in Chicago. We had a great time and are planning on attending their Chicago show again next year. ATIA's next event is ATIA Orlando on January 28-30. Hope to see you there!

Win an Audio Graphing Calculator

As an incentive for all of you that follow ViewPlus on our social media outlets, we would like to give you the opportunity to win an Audio Graphing Calculator (AGC)! All you have to do is click on the following link, fill out the form, print it out, and bring it with you to the ATIA Chicago 2009 conference. To enter make sure you drop it off at the ViewPlus booth (#129). We hope to see you in Chicago!

AGC ENTRY FORM!

For details about the show visit the ATIA Chicago website.

Get a FREE exhibit hall pass!

Editing and Printing Graphics as a Blind User

Mike Sivill is a blind employee here at ViewPlus Technologies. This is what he had to say about how he used a Tiger embosser to see the coloration of his new dog guide! Read along to see how easy it is for a blind person to emboss a graphic!

"I just got my new dog guide about a month ago. The training school sent me her picture so I could show my friends and family what she looks like. I wanted to emboss a copy for myself on my Tiger embosser, so I brought up a new Word document and brought the picture into it via the Insert menu. I checked the dimensions of the picture first to be sure it would fill up the page. I hit shift + left arrow to select it, pressed the key to open the context menu, and arrowed down to "format picture." Next, I arrowed left to the "size" tab and noticed that the dimensions were only 3.35 by 3.99. I didn't want a tiny 4 by 4 inch picture because I wanted it to be as large as possible to feel as much as I could, but I didn't want to warp the dimensions of the picture in the process. To do this, I tabbed down to the edit boxes where height and width are adjustable by percentage and I upped it to 200%. When I shift tabbed back to the dimension they were 6.71" and 7.98", pretty good, for 8-1/2 by 11 paper. Since this was fine I hit OK and went back into the main Word document. When I printed it came out like a giant black square. It felt like a napkin pattern rather than a German Shepherd dog. To solve this issue, I went back to the "format picture" dialog and I changed the contrast on the Format tab to 85%. That was so much better! When I printed it out that time I could feel her big pointy ears, her legs and even the coloration of her head, which, of course, I can't feel on the actual dog. It was exciting to be able to see this part of her with my fingers after hearing about it from other people. Awesome!"

– Mike Sivill

October is National Disability Employment Month!

October has been designated National Disability Employment Awareness month. It works to provide the public with information about the accomplishments made by American workers with disabilities. It also addresses issues in the workplace that still need to be overcome.

Here at ViewPlus, we work to overcome issues in the workplace for those with visual impairments. Our line of embossers provides an easy solution for braille production. With our software's capability to work within Microsoft Word and Excel, braille translation is simple for both blind and sighted users. These tools make it easy to produce accessible meeting notes, graphs, and other documents so blind workers can fully participate and understand company goals.

Next, we provide an accessible scientific calculator, the Audio Graphing Calculator. Similar to a TI-83, AGC's functionality allows disabled users to work in a variety of jobs that may otherwise be more difficult, such as engineering and physics.

We have put together several packages, called Everyday Braille Solutions, to help students and employees make their environment accessible. They provide everything needed to get you started. Our packages all include:
Tiger braille embosser
All required software and upgrades
Warranty, repair, and support services
Customized on site and online trainings
Braille paper, tutorials, and ink cartridges

At ViewPlus we are always working to make it easier to integrate the blind into the work environment. With products that can be easily utilized by sighted and blind users, employers may be more inclined to hire blind workers. The simplicity of our products reduces stress for both the employer and employee, making it a smooth transition for a new blind employee to join the work team.

To find out more about National Disability Employment Awareness month visit http://www.dol.gov/odep/

Funding Your Tiger Embosser

Finding funding for assistive technology can be difficult. For this reason we have put together a little information on ways that you can find funding for your needs. Getting a Tiger embosser may be easier than you thought after all!

To begin, we would like to mention that visionaware.com is a great online resource for those with vision loss. Their site includes a state by state list of resources, national organizations that serve the visually impaired, and international resources for those who live outside of the U.S.

In the U.S. the three primary funding sources for people with disabilities are Medicaid, special education, and vocational rehabilitation programs. Medicaid programs differ by state which can make it difficult to understand what they might cover. To know more about your local program, connect with a Medicaid representative in your area. Special education and Section 504 are programs open to children with disabilities usually up to the age of 21. It is good to acquire equipment when a child is young so that they know what assistive technology will work best for them in adulthood. Vocational rehabilitation programs are designed to help adults with disabilities become employed and offer funding for resources necessary in the work environment. For further information about these three programs please read this article.

Once you've narrowed down who in your area to contact, then you can begin the process of figuring out what the best funding source will be.

We wish you luck on your funding search and hope this post pointed you in the right direction!